Amid the latest furor, caused by a shootingin a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado,John R. Lott, Jr., author of the book MoreGuns, LessCrime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, asked a most telling question. “Would you feel safer with a sign in front of your home thatsaid: ‘Gun-Free Zone’?”

During a July 25 interview with this writer, Lott expanded on this notion.

“Guns were banned from the movie theater where that shooting took place,” said Lott. “So,law-abiding citizens obeyed, but the criminal didn’t.Obviously, these gun-free zones make it easier for lawbreakers to engage in this type of violentbehavior, producing the opposite effect of what we want to see happen.”

“The bottom line is: If you wouldn’t put one ofthese signs in front of your home, why place themin front of movie theaters or schools?”

Lott illustrated another under-reported element of the story: “Four percent of Colorado residentshave concealed carry permits, but none could have taken his gun into that Aurora theater. Why do weso rarely see news reports about how often theseevents take place in gun-free zones? The media refuses to do it. Also, these same people in the mediaconstantly tell us how bad guns are, but how frequentlydo we hear good stories about the defensivemeasures associated with guns? Primarily,they want to disarm law-abiding citizens.”

Alan Korwin, the author of six books, who has twice presented oral arguments before the United States SupremeCourt and is a national TV guest, couldn’tagree more with Lott’s analysis.

During a July 25 interview, Korwin told AMERICAN FREE PRESS: “Gun control is a euphemism for disarming thepublic. This entire issue pits those who are pro-rights against those who are anti-rights. It’s noteven a debate. The anti-rights crowd asks: Whatguns can we outlaw from private hands? They’ll talk about only banning one type of weapon, butonce the bill comes out it’s 16 pages long and banseverything in sight.”

Korwin shifted the parameters of this argument: “We should be looking at the behavior and culturalside of this problem,” he said. “When I grew up, kids didn’t randomly shoot up schools. It was unfathomable.Yet guns were more available then.There was no paperwork and no FBI background checks, and you could buy guns via mail order.What changed in America? Kids used to bring gunsto school for show and tell, plus there were high school rifle teams. Availability of guns isn’t theproblem.”

Instead, Korwin insists other factors must beconsidered: “Imagine the irony of that Batmanfilm,” he said. “Those people got to experiencemass murder firsthand while waiting to watch gratuitous mass murder on a movie screen.”

Korwin turned his attention to demographics: “Here is what no one will tell you,” he said. “Of the30,000 gun deaths per year, over half of them occur as elder suicides. It’s not a firearms issue; it’s amedical issue. Some 90% of the other half ofgun deaths result from black-on-black murders in the ghetto. They’re gang-and drug-related. But liberalshave a skewed perspective on guns. Theywon’t talk about how blacks are angry and hostile and own illegal weapons. They’re people withouthope. So, it’s not about the presence of legalfirearms, but a socioeconomic problem in the ghetto.”

According to Korwin, talking heads on TV bearmuch of the blame for anti-gun hysteria: “Eighty people die in car accidents every day, while 12 people died in that movie theater,” he said. “But themedia is still obsessed over this shooting. Theyhave a fetish and a rampant hatred of guns. It’s called ‘hoplophobia’—a morbid fear of guns. Thisso-called political problem is actually a medicalcondition. The anti-rights crowd is afraid that ifthey had a gun, they’d shoot someone. So, theypsychologically project this fear onto everyoneelse. Because they don’t trust themselves, they don’t trust their fellow man.”

Korwin feels that more citizens should bearmed: “Chicago and Washington, D.C. had strictgun laws, but it didn’t lower crime,” he said. “Infact, there’s an inverse relationship. When the public is allowed to protect itself, criminals are at adisadvantage. We live in a safer world now than when there were no guns. A perfect example is thereign of Genghis Khan. If all guns were ever takenaway, the good guys would have to reinvent them. The most important purpose of owning a weaponis to protect and defend oneself.”

Korwin agreed with Lott in regard to gun-free zones: “They’re a cruel hoax,” he stated. “Theydon’t work, and it’s dangerous, reckless and negligent of those who promote them. In 1991 duringthe Killeen, Texas massacre, the restaurant where itoccurred was a gun-free zone. A woman dining there intentionally left her weapon in the car becauseit was illegal to bring it inside. She couldhave stopped that rampage before it got any worse.”

George Hennard killed 23 people and wounded20 more that day at a Luby’s restaurant in Killeen,firing repeatedly at customers, without fear, because every law-abiding citizen was required toleave his handgun outside the restaurant.

In this light, Korwin has proposed a Gun-Free-Zone Liability Act in Arizona, where any businessthat establishes a gun-free zone would be fully liable for the harm it causes.

Shootings Among Law-Abiding Gun Owners Rare

By Victor Thorn

Regardless of the anti-gun propagandathat occurs following a mass shooting,homicides committed by law-abidingfirearm owners in the United States are rare. By best estimates, 300 million guns exist inAmerica. If suicides and black-on-black ghettomurders are removed from the equation, only one in every 100,000 firearms is used in murder andmanslaughter. When self-defense is considered, itbecomes even clearer that gun ownership does not constitute the plague that many in the mediascream about.

The numbers support this sentiment. On September 28, 2011, journalist C.J. Ciaramella wrote: “Despiteincreased gun sales, gun crimes continued to decrease in the United States for the fourth straightyear in 2010, according to the FBI. At the sametime that firearm murders were dropping [by 14% in 2010], gun sales were surging. In 2009,FBI background checks for guns increased by 30% over the previous year. . .”

If National Rifle Association estimates are accurate, there are approximately 90 million gunowners in America. Yet total firearm murders in2010 were roughly 8,700. When inner-city unlawful killings committed by blacks—who are 18 timesmore likely to commit these crimes than whites—are excluded from the statistics, the overall figuresare undeniably low.

Still, what happens when vocal congressional leaders, such as Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, FrankLautenberg, Charles Schumer, Barney Frank, Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin and Barbara Boxer, seektighter bans on private gun ownership? The answeris obvious. In Chicago, notorious for its clampdown on gun rights, more police officers were killed thanin any other city across the country.

Two of the three states with the highest gunmurder rates are California and New York. Theyalso tout some of the strictest gun-control legislation in America. Another example is Washington,D.C. Prior to its handgun ban being overturned bythe Supreme Court, D.C. boasted the highest murder rate per capita of any U.S. city.

When The Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribuneoffered readers an interactive map of all gun-related homicides in their cities, the results wereshocking. When murders committed by blacks were removed from the totals, the overall numbersvirtually disappeared.

Rather than myopically focusing on legal gun ownership, the problem is instead geographic. Asjournalist and researcher Alan Korwin notes: “The ‘gun problem’ is not about guns. It’s about selectgroups of people. . . . Crime is not spread acrossthe streets of America. Crime, and crime using guns, happen in isolated areas, for reasons themedia and politicians hide from you.”

In a moment of rare honesty, Jill Leovy of the Los Angeles Times began compiling a homicideblog in 2007. She later reported: “The truth about homicide is that it is black men in their 20s, in their30s [and] in their 40s. . . . Homicide is not a masssyndrome in America. It’s a concentrated group of people, and that group of people is still horribly affectedby homicide.”

A CBS investigation of Chicago gang warfareand street crime supported her evidence. In a September, 2008 report entitled “Chicago War Deaths,” CBS reported, “More than 90% of the offendershave criminal histories, and 80% of the victimshave criminal histories.”

United States Has No Monopoly On Gun-Related Mass Murder

•Nations with the strictest gun control laws have had some of history’s worst gun-related massacres.

By Victor Thorn

When the subject of gun-relatedmass murder is examined, theUnited States doesn’t have a monopolyon such violence. Contraryto media campaigns that paint America as the most dangerous place on Earth, countries withhighly restrictive gun control laws see similarmassacres.

On June 10, 2010, John R. Lott, Jr. revealed: “Where have the worst K-12 school shootings occurred? It has not been in the U.S. but Europe. The very worst one occurred in a high school in Erfurt, Germany in 2002, where 18 were killed. The second worst took place in Dunblane, Scotland in 1996, where 16 kindergarteners and their teacher were shot. The third worst high school attack, with 15 murdered, happened in Winnenden, Germany. The fourth worst shooting was in the U.S. — Columbine High School in 1999, leaving 13 killed. The fifth worst school related murder spree, with 11 murdered, occurred in Emsdetten, Germany.”

Of the top 12 mass murders in history that were committed with weapons, three of them took place in America. As you can determine, these violent acts transpired in all parts of the globe and involved a variety of weaponry—not just firearms. Here are some more . . .

• Russia, 1999: Bus driver Ahmed Ibragimovwalks house to house, slaying more than 34.(After his capture, surviving family membersbeat him to death with sticks and iron rods.)

• Tasmania, Australia, 1996 (known as the Port Arthur massacre): Mentally deficient Martin John Bryant served as the patsy for a suspectedblack op that killed 35. The infamous Australian gun buybacks followed, where the governmentconfiscated virtually all firearms. Thegun confiscation has done little but leave citizens defenseless against armed criminals.

• Tanganyika, 1957: After slaughtering 21people in the Belgian Congo with an axe,William Unek flees, only to kill 36 more threeyears later via a stolen rifle and another axe, in addition to burning down houses.

• Oslo, Norway, 2011: In what may be another black op, Anders Behring Breivik slays 69 studentsand instructors on Utoya Island. Beforehand,a bomb he allegedly detonated killed another eight, a total of 77 killed.

Victor Thorn is a hard-hitting researcher, journalist and the author of over 50 books.